Policy on working with industry

Most organisations working in tourism would acknowledge that their activities are not yet fairly traded nor sustainable. Tourism Concern welcomes the opportunity to work with any organisation willing and capable of change so long as this reflects our mission and does not compromise our values.

Tourism Concern’s mission is to make sure tourism and volunteering always benefits the local communities. We work in a number of different ways, primarily campaigning. Our integrity and independence are fundamental to achieving our mission and to providing a credible service to those organisations we work with.

When entering into a working relationship with an organisation Tourism Concern will respect the confidentiality of any information obtained through that relationship. No confidential information will be used by Tourism Concern in their campaigning activities.

Tourism Concern is committed to campaigning against exploitation in tourism. It is essential to our independence and integrity that there be no influence or preferential treatment expected or given should an organisation with which we are working be involved in activities against which we are campaigning.

Tourism Concern will work with organisations:

That have a genuine commitment to continuous improvement on their social performance including active approval and continued commitment at senior management level.

Where there are measurable improvements as a result of the changes they have implemented within the communities in which they operate.

That will not behave in such a way as to compromise the reputation of Tourism Concern, or have any negative impact on Tourism Concern’s core activities.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Tourism Concern will monitor the effectiveness of our working relationships against our policy on an ongoing basis.

Should an organisation no longer fulfil the policy criteria then Tourism Concern will stop working with them.

Should we feel that no progress is being made then we will also stop working with them

Following a report from our Treasurer, the trustees of Tourism Concern have taken the difficult decision to close the charity. The vote was unanimous.

The charity has struggled financially for a number of years and cut costs to the barest minimum but despite the best efforts of talented executive directors and generations of enthusiastic and committed trustees, the battle for financial survival has been lost. Funding from charitable foundations, which sustained us in the past, is no longer available in these difficult times and income from membership fees has not been sufficient to allow Tourism Concern to pursue its charitable aims as the trustees would like. The trustees were determined that Tourism Concern should not become a zombie charity, raising money simply to exist.

Next year would have marked our 30th anniversary and we would like to pay tribute to the founders for their passion and foresight and to thank the charity’s directors, volunteers and past trustees for their commitment and many achievements, of which perhaps the most significant has been to project the principles of responsible tourism into the mainstream conversation.

We would also like to thank Tourism Concern’s loyal members and supporters who have contributed so much through all these years, not only towards the achievement of the charity’s goals but also to the promotion of responsible tourism around the world.

The trustees are particularly indebted to our manager, Lidia Hejja, who has valiantly kept the organisation afloat in recent months.

We have nominated a charity with similar objectives to receive any outstanding funds.